'I want to win.' Pitcher Sonny Gray ready for new challenge in Twins rotation

FORT MYERS, FLA. — Sonny Gray had officially been a Twins pitcher for about two days and only been in the building for about five hours, but he already had a gaggle of adoring fans clamoring for his autograph and selfies at Hammond Stadium.

And he took a good 15 minutes to indulge every request.

"They were very excited," Gray said Tuesday after the Twins' second day of spring camp. "I don't know if they were excited to be down here in the nice weather or if they were excited for the Twins. I think they were a little bit excited for both."

Gray demurred when prompted that those fans might just be excited to see their new starting pitcher, too: "I hope so. It was a pleasure to meet a lot of the fans here. The support was great. They were very welcoming."

The Twins' pitching problems needed addressing. Last season's starting rotation barely stood until halfway through the season, when the team traded J.A. Happ and Jose Berrios and let Matt Shoemaker go entirely. With supposed-to-be-ace Kenta Maeda exiting the season early before Tommy John surgery, rookie pitchers such as Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober saw the Twins through to a playoffs-less end to the year.

The Twins signed free agent Dylan Bundy before the lockout but had to wait three-and-a-half months to make Gray's addition this past Sunday from the Reds — along with minor League righthander Francis Peguero — in exchange for Chase Petty, the Twins' first-round pick from last year's draft.

Gray, a 2011 first-round pick, had a dominant start to his career in Oakland with ERAs no worse than 3.08 his first three seasons. But that shot up to 5.69 in 2016, and he split 2017 between Oakland and the Yankees. He stayed one more lackluster year in New York before being traded to Cincinnati in 2019.

The Tennessee native recalled his time with the Reds as a rejuvenation of sorts, with the highlight clinching the team's first playoff berth since 2013 back in 2020. He actually smoked a celebratory cigar in the Target Field dugout when that happened.

But the Reds couldn't accomplish that World Series goal and eventually needed to make a trade for financial reasons. Gray took the news pretty well, but it was his 7-year-old son Gunnar's reaction that most worried him.

"He was a big Reds fan," Gray said. "… We downloaded the movie 'Little Big League.' We watched the movie as a family, and it was Twins, it was kids, it was baseball, it was awesome. We started getting a little excited."

Gray, wife Jessica, Gunnar and 3-year-old son Declan had a crazy couple weeks. Gray was in Florida as the Reds' player representative during the lockout negotiations and had only a couple of days to breathe before loading his family into the car and heading to the airport to catch a flight to spring training in Arizona. That's when he heard of the trade and realized he needed to turn around and head back east.

Tuesday consisted of his medical evaluations and doing a bit of light baseball work while trying to meet all his new teammates. He plans to throw his first bullpen Thursday, and while he said he feels "healthy" and "strong," he was cautious about claiming his spot as the Opening Day starter. He plans to strategize with manager Rocco Baldelli and pitching coach Wes Johnson to make sure he's stretching out in a responsible way and not rushed with April 6 looming.

"If you're built up to two innings in April at the beginning, then you're built up to two innings. And if you're built up to three, you're built up to three," Gray said. "But not try and jump, jump, jump and be throwing seven innings on Opening Day or whatever just because you feel like you need to."

Baldelli echoed that but did say he will be purposeful with his spring game lineups to make sure new pitchers such as Gray and Bundy have enough time to build some rapport with catchers Ryan Jeffers and Gary Sanchez. Jeffers said he'd work with the staff to study up on Gray's style before having that first conversation with the starter but was excited to see Gray's two-seam fastball and curveball mix in action.

Baldelli said messages about how great Gray is to work with filled his phone after the trade Sunday, and he feels the 32-year-old is someone that will "bring everything to the table" for the Twins.

Gray hopes that feeling is mutual.

"The Twins seem to be pushing more chips in, 'Let's try to really improve the team in order to win,'" Gray said. "That's kind of where I'm at in my career. And that's just what it's all really about to me is winning.

"I want to win. I want to win. I want to win. I want to win. That's kind of where my focus is, just winning."